Back in the middle of the month, you may recall us strolling along to watch some new footage from DreamWorks Animation’s 2012 releases, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Rise Of The Guardians. Trailers for both movies were also shown and while Madagascar has already hit them thar Interwebs, we’ve had to wait a week or so for the Guardians. But now the promo is online and can be viewed below.

Rise Of The Guardians finds the DWA bods looking to bottle more of the magic that How To Train Your Dragon brought, this time adapting the work of William Joyce. His Guardians series of novels finds the likes of North (AKA Santa Claus), Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny), Tooth (the Tooth Fairy, natch) and Sandy (the Sandman) working together to spread joy and wonder throughout the world via kids’ imaginations.

But their very existence is under threat from Pitch, the bogeyman, who wants our world to be dominated by fear. To combat this newly resurgent threat, the Guardians begrudgingly agree to allow a new member into their number, Jack Frost. He comes with his own baggage, though, since he’s not exactly a team player…

While the Frost angle isn’t covered in this first promo, this does at least introduce you to most of the main cast, voiced by the likes of Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman (getting to break out an Aussie tones for the first time in a while), Isla Fisher and Jude Law (yup, the bad guy has a British accent. Surprise!)

It looks to be a fun twist on some very iconic characters and this first look certainly gives a hint of the visual style and sense of fun that we glimpsed in the footage.

It looks... kinda silly. About the only visual I like is Santa's Russian prison tattoos. But it feels like an animated movie actually aimed purely at kids. Which is not a bad thing, of course. Not all animated movies should court both kids and parents. But it makes an already twee premise even cuter. So... skipping this one. More